By Dave Howell
Special to The Morning Call
Donna Summer opened Friday night with ''She Works Hard For The Money.'' And she did.
Summer went all out for her Musikfest RiverPlace show, with a band that included nine strings, three horns, two backup singers and her husband Bruce Sudano playing a silver grand piano at the top of the set. A superb light show and a rotating silver disco ball paid homage to the former disco queen's roots.
The 56-year-old Summer's voice has lost none of the power that the enthusiastic crowd remembered from her late-1970s hits. She looked resplendent, wearing three different gowns during the show.
Summer covered her biggest hits, including ''Last Dance,'' ''Hot Stuff,'' ''MacArthur Park,'' ''I Love You'' and ''No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),'' the latter as a duet with her sister Mary Bernard. Summer even did shorter versions of her early chartbusters ''Love To Love You Baby'' and ''I Feel Love.''
There were some unexpected features during the 90-minute show. Summer brought up five audience members to sing the background to ''On the Radio.'' Summer performed ''Natural Woman,'' George Gershwin's ''The Man I Love,'' Charlie Chaplin's ''Smile'' and the Moody Blues' ''Nights in White Satin.''
She spoke to the audience about many of her songs. After Summer explained it was a 25th anniversary present from her husband, Sudano moved to center stage to sing his ''Le Imagine Café.''
During the show, there were tongue-in-cheek references to being a diva, but Donna Summer proved that no one deserves the title more than she does.
Dave Howell is a freelance writer.
